In both cases, the BLM has been trying for more than five years to
resolve the disputes short of impoundment, says BLM spokeswoman Jo
Simpson.

Simpson says Vogt's bill totals an estimated $300,000. Colvin's
bill is estimated at $70,000 in back fees and fines.

The BLM is involved in various stages of talks with at least seven
other Nevada ranchers accused of illegally grazing livestock on
federal land.

While the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood has organized
picketing around auction barns where the cattle are impounded, the men
seem to have little sympathy among other Nevada cattlemen.

The New York Times reports that they have received no
support from the Nevada Cattlemen's Association.

Rachel Buzzetti, executive director of the Nevada Cattlemen's
Association, says that the grazing-fee system generally works well and
that the impoundment was between these ranchers and the BLM.

Gary Snow, the Fallon Livestock Auction owner, says 80 to 90
percent of the ranchers he knew disapproved of Colvin's and Vogt's
protests.

"This is not our preferred action," Simpson says.
"We would much prefer the people in trespass get their cows off
voluntarily. These things have been going on for a long time."

The BLM plans to sell the impounded cattle at auction if the owners
fail to pay the back fees. A deadline for payment has not been set.
The agency must provide the owners with five days' notice before
holding the auction.

Ben Colvin's family ranching roots in Nevada date back to before
the Civil War.

"My family's been in the ranching business since before
1860," Colvin says.

Jack Vogt started ranching in California just after World War II
with a single cow and wound up with a large herd in south-central
Nevada.

Federal officials refuse to describe either man as a rancher.

"They are trespassers, not ranchers," says Bob Abbey, the
Nevada director of the federal Bureau of Land Management. "I have
too much respect for the ranching profession to describe these men
that way. They are simply out to get something for free from the
American taxpayer."

Colvin has nothing kind to say about the BLM.

"Those who would arm themselves and take other people's cattle
used to be called cattle rustlers." he says.

Colvin and Vogt have paid nothing since 1995, according to the BLM,
and have refused to comply with herd rotation schedules intended to
limit overgrazing on particular stretches of range.

They are receiving the support of the Nevada Committee for Full
Statehood, an anti-federal government group here that does not
recognize the BLM's authority over public lands in Nevada.

The group says it fully supports Colvin and Vogt, and that the
actions of the BLM indicate Nevadans are being treated like serfs.
They say Nevada has been relegated to the status of a territory of the
federal government.

Abbey dismisses the accusations as a smokescreen for efforts to
defraud the treasury. The fees, set by Congress, are $1.35 per month
per animal unit, defined as either a cow and a calf or five sheep.

Protesters say the BLM is taking the cattle without a court order.

The BLM says that under their rules, they don't need a court order.

Colvin's livestock grazing permit was revoked in 1997 and he lost
two appeals, BLM spokeswoman JoLynn Worley says. The BLM served
trespass notices and notices of intent to impound the cattle to try to
resolve the issue short of impoundment, she says.

The cattle were seized from the Montezuma federal grazing allotment
that borders Nellis Air Force Base, stretching more than 90 miles from
Tonopah south to near Beatty. The southern end of the allotment is
home to wild mustangs and officially "threatened" desert
tortoises and is under stress from unusually dry conditions, BLM says.

Portions of the allotment were closed to grazing in 1996 due to
drouth, and BLM conducted emergency roundups of wild horses to ease
stress on the range.

Jackie Holmgren, who works the Rawhide Ranch between Hawthorne and
Gabbs, says recent rains have helped the range. She disputes BLM's
claim that the cattle were damaging the land.

"If it's in bad condition at all, it's because they haven't
gathered the horses," she tells the Reno Gazette-Journal.

This marks the seventh or eighth time the BLM has seized
trespassing cattle on federal land in Nevada over the past decade,
Worley says.

The federal government owns 87 percent of the land in Nevada, more
than in any other state, and grumblings over federal stewardship date
back to Nevada's entry into the union in 1864.